THE younger brother of hero Poole firefighter Jim Shears, who died battling a tower block blaze last year, has welcomed a new arrival to the family.

Gary Shears is thrilled to be a new dad to a bouncing baby boy - who has been named after his firefighting brother.

Little James David Shears, weighing 5lb 13ozs, was born to Gary and fiancée Jet at Poole Hospital three days after Christmas.

Both mum and baby are at their Poole home doing well.

Gary, 29, said: "We found out Jet was pregnant between Jim's death and his funeral. So we kept it a little bit quiet. We didn't know how my mum and dad and Carla would take it."

Carla, Jim's widow and mother of his two boys, is said to be "thrilled" with Gary and Jet's decision to name their first child after her husband.

Gary continued: "So we left off telling everyone our news at the time, at least for a few days. When we told mum, dad and Carla I guess it was a little bit of good news in a horrible time.

"The funny thing was, Jim was always teasing me, saying 'when are you going to get married? When are you going to have a baby?.'

"He was always on our cases. The irony is, Jet would have been pregnant when he was still alive."

Jim Shears died alongside fellow Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service firefighter Alan Bannon last April.

Fire chief officer John Bonney would go onto say Jim and Alan bought the residents valuable time, enabling a successful evacuation.

All residents of the 15-storey block - including one heavily pregnant woman - were either evacuated or led to safety.

Gary said: "It was a big thing naming him James, but obviously we spoke to Carla, mum and dad, to ask them what they thought about it.

"Carla loved the idea. I was a bit worried asking her, but she was really thrilled. She said it was an honour and that meant a lot.

"Mum and dad think he's a spitting image of Jim when he was a child. They even bought some pictures around and he does look like him."

Gary told the Daily Echo he would one day tell his son all about his big brother.